The Breakup and The Makeup
by awesomegurl68
Summary: Sean and Sue encounter a bump in the road in their relationship.
1. The Breakup

**Hey everyone! This one was a hard one for me to write. After the series finale, I wanted to write about Sue and Sean's breakup(s) because I didn't like the way the show casually threw that in there. But don't fret. I wrote two chapters so you can still read about a happy ending. I hope you enjoy the story!**

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Sean neatly stacked the dishes in the dishwasher at Sue and Lexie's shared apartment. It had been two months since he returned home from Ghana and him and Sue were spending every available minute together, attempting to make up for lost time. They studied together, ate together, and walked each other from class to class when their schedules lined up. He was so happy to finally be with the girl of his dreams and he wanted to make sure he didn't do anything to screw it up this time. He closed the door to the dishwasher and started the cleaning cycle.

Sue tapped her pencil on the kitchen table, slightly squinting her eyes at the ceiling while she tried to figure out how to answer one of the questions on her homework assignment.

"Ugh...I just can't figure this out." She complained as she flipped through the pages of her math textbook in search of an explanation.

"Mind if I take a look?" Sean asked. He had taken several math courses in college and always excelled in them, like Donahues usually do.

"Oh...you don't have to..." Sue began to say when she was cut off.

"Sue." Sean said simply, his eyes looking into hers, his eyebrows raised in a way that said 'I would do anything for you.' Sue let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay." She said. Sean stepped behind her and leaned over her shoulder to examine the assignment. He couldn't resist the urge to wrap his arms around her, so he did just that and set his head on her shoulder as he read the text on the page. Sue gently stroked his arm, which had become habit now, and he gently kissed her on the neck before turning back to look at the assignment. Sue always felt instantly relaxed when he held her like this. Sean pointed at a formula in her textbook.

"You have to use this." He said. He stood back up and placed his hands on her shoulders while she finished her math problem.

"Ah, I get it now. Thanks!" She said.

"Any time." He said happily. Sean sat down in the chair next to her, pulled a stack of books and papers out of his backpack, and set them on the table next to Sue's. A piece of paper fell out of one of the books and landed partially on top of Sue's homework. Sean quickly reached over to remove it and shoved it back in his book in an attempt to hide it. Sue had already noticed the red markings on the page, and a very low grade on what appeared to be a quiz.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Oh...it was nothing...just something from one of my classes." Sean said, embarrassed and worried that she had noticed his almost failing grade.

"Sean...you got a D?" She said. Sean cringed and buried his face in his hands. He mumbled "yes" into his hands but kept his face covered. He never wanted anyone to know that he was less than perfect. He was always raised to be a success and anything less was unacceptable in his family. Now that he was with Sue, he was afraid that she would notice his shortcomings and no longer be interested in him.

"I-I-it's okay, Sean...everyone gets bad grades sometimes. I remember this one time in my econ class I had a test that didn't..." She began to ramble in an attempt to make Sean feel better. He cut her off in a confession of his own.

"Sue...it's not just this one thing...it's a lot of things. I thought when I went to Ghana that things would turn around and that I would do better in my classes, but things are only getting worse and I'm sorry and I don't want you to think less of me...I feel like such an idiot." He said.

Sue opened her mouth to speak but wasn't sure what to say. The first thought that popped into her mind was that after Ghana, the two of them had started their relationship and she worried that she was being too much of a distraction. She knew that Sean would never tell her that he needed more time to focus. He always put her feelings first and now it was hitting her that maybe it was a problem. She had been to wrapped up in their whirlwind romance that she sort of forgot about reality.

"Sean...I...I don't really know what to say." She finally said. Sean turned to her and placed his hands on hers.

"You don't have to say anything, Suzy Q...this is my fault." He said while looking down at their hands.

Sue looked down at her feet and nervously tapped her toes on the floor. Her worst nightmare was about to come true, and she was going to have to be the one to make it happen.

"Sean...I hope you know how much I love you..." She started. Sean smiled a little bit but could sense that something was wrong.

"I do. I love you, too...I really do." Sean said in return.

"But..." Sue said. Sean's face turned grim and his heart began to sink. He knew what was happening now and it made him feel sick.

"Please don't do this." Sean said in a panic, holding more tightly onto her hands.

"I just think that it would be best if..." Sue said as tears started to roll down her cheek. She noticed Sean's eyes beginning to water as well.

"No...please don't." Sean pleaded while he bit down on his lip in an attempt to maintain his composure.

"I don't want to be the reason for your bad grades...school is important to you and I can't mess things up for you." Sue said.

"It's not you, Sue. I'm just having a hard time with my classes...but I can try harder. I will try harder...I promise..." He said.

"I think we should just take a break...take some time to focus...not forever...just...for now." Sue said. She sniffed her now running nose and wiped tears from her eyes with her sleeve. Sean's attempt at maintaining his composure was a failure now, as tears left his eyes while his heart crumbled into a thousand pieces. Seeing Sean like this caused Sue to completely lose it. She whispered 'I'm sorry' to him before she ran to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She threw herself onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow. How could this have happened so quickly. Just a few minutes ago she was walking on air...and now she was at rock bottom. Sean remained at the kitchen table for a few minutes. He banged his head down onto his books, the pages becoming wet from his tears. He had experienced feelings of disappointment and rejection, but this was a whole new experience for him. He had loved Sue for so long. When he confessed his love for her, that feeling grew even stronger. They had survived the summer apart...but now everything was falling apart because of a piece of paper. He pulled the quiz out of his textbook, looked at it, and crumpled it up into a ball. He packed up his books and headed for the door. When Sue heard the sound of the door shutting, she cried even harder and she snuggled with Woofy Dog on her bed.


	2. The Makeup

Sue looked at her cell phone, hoping to see a text message but there was nothing there. It had been a week since she had seen Sean and she still ached from their last conversation. In the process of breaking Sean's heart, she broke her own and she was finding it harder than ever to concentrate on school. She wondered if she had made a mistake by letting him go. She wondered if he was okay and if he was able to focus more on his grades now. She wondered if he hated her and if he would ever talk to her again. The thought of that made her eyes begin to tear, but she quickly thought about 'happy thoughts' to shove the tears away. Double rainbows. Puppies. Ice cream. She decided that now would be a good time for ice cream. After leaving her last class for the week, she walked across the open, grassy lawn on her campus on her way to the dining hall. She noticed a familiar figure sitting on a park bench not far from her classroom. He did look familiar, but at the same time, he was not the same. Sean sat on the park bench alone, his backpack on the ground beside him. His hair was lacking his usual hair gel and his face was scruffy. He was looking down at the grass, occasionally picking up a strand and breaking it into pieces before throwing it back down onto the ground. Sue instantly felt guilty that she had done this to him, but the way he was looking pretty much matched up to the way she was feeling inside. When he looked up, she saw dark circles under his eyes. A wave of recognition crossed his face when their eyes met across the quad. His head perked up slightly. Sue took this as a sign and began to walk in his direction. She saw Sean attempt to fix his hair, but he quickly gave up.

"Hey, Sean." Sue said. She cringed when she heard the hoarseness of her own voice and hoped that Sean hadn't noticed, but he did. Sean slid over on the bench, giving Sue a place to sit down.

"Hi, Sue." He said without looking at her. He just kept looking down at the green grass. Sue hadn't expected a warm welcome, but his response left her feeling a little cold. She tried to shrug it off since it was only a week ago when she suggested that they take a break. She didn't expect this to become a full fledged breakup.

"So...how have you been?" She asked stupidly, kicking herself for asking. Sean turned to her for the first time since she sat down.

"How have I _been_?" He asked, sounding slightly angry. Sue bit her lip and squinted her eyes, bracing herself for the worst, but it didn't happen. When Sean saw her reaction, his face softened and he let out a deep breath to calm himself. He chuckled sarcastically and said "I didn't know it was possible to feel this miserable." Sue hated herself for making him feel this way and began to think that she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

"I-I'm sorry...I should just leave you alone..." She stammered as she got up from the bench. "I'm really sorry." She began to quickly run away to go back to her apartment where she could cry in peace, but her feet had a mind of their own. In typical Sue fashion, she tripped over her own feet and clumsily fell face first onto the grass. "I deserve this." She mumbled into the grass. She just laid there in defeat for a minute before she heard footsteps quickly approaching her from behind. She heard someone collapse onto the ground beside her and she knew who it was without looking. Of course, Sean would come to her rescue even after she broke his heart.

"Are you okay?" Sean asked urgently, placing his hand softly on her outstretched arm.

"No." She mumbled into the grass, not thinking about her answer before she said it.

"Oh my God...I'll call 9-1-1." Sean said in a panic, reaching into his pocket to pull out his cellphone. Sue quickly sat up and shook her head furiously.

"No, no, no...I'm fine...I mean I'm _not_ fine...but I'm fine." Sue blurted out. A chunk of grass clippings lazily hung from her forehead. Sean let out a sigh of relief and a soft laugh at the sight of it. He reached over to her and wiped it off.

"Oh...thanks." She laughed, wiping her forehead with her sleeve to remove any remaining dirt.

"Don't mention it." He laughed. For the first time in a week, he felt a sense of happiness, but he quickly remembered the current situation and felt sad again. Sean and Sue sat quietly on the grass for a few minutes without saying anything. Sue wondered if she should beg for his forgiveness and to give her another chance, but she knew that she didn't deserve it. Sue picked a stray dandelion and began playing 'He loves me, He loves me not' in her head, picking individual petals off of the flower one at a time.

"He loves you." Sean said with a smile when he recognized what she was doing. She used to play the game all of the time when they were kids. It warmed his heart that the girl he knew all the way back then was still inside of her. Sue looked up in surprise and blushed at his statement. A small smile spread across her face.

"How did you know I was..." She started to say.

"Come on, Sue...how long have we known each other?" He asked. He smiled at her and she nodded in agreement. He cleared his throat and a serious look suddenly appeared on his face. "Sue, there's something you should know." He said.

"What is it?" She asked, a little worried about what he was about to say.

"I don't know how you're going to feel about this, I haven't told anyone..." He said nervously.

"Just tell me." She said, bracing herself.

"I don't want to be a doctor. I'm sorry." He blurted out as if it was the worst thing to ever come out of his mouth. Sue tilted her head in confusion.

"You're sorry? What are you talking about, Sean?" She asked in search of clarification.

"I just...okay. I know that I always said I wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up...and my parents always pushed me in that direction ever since I brought it up. I did well in school, I went to Notre Dame so I could get into a good med school, went to Ghana...but I'm kind of terrible at it. I'm not struggling in my classes because of you, Sue...A-a-and now it's too late to change anything, I'm already in Med School and everyone is expecting me to be this thing that I don't want to be...but I kept trying this year because of you...not in a bad way. You encouraged me to continue, and I want to do well for you. I'm just so disappointed in myself that I am letting you down." He said.

 _"What?"_ Sue asked in surprise. "Sean, you don't have to be perfect in order for me to love you." She said. Sean's face lit up at her words. No one had ever said something like that to him before. He always thought he had to strive to be perfect instead of just being happy.

"So you aren't disappointed?" He asked cautiously.

"Of course not! Seriously, Sean. I am far from perfect. I've changed my major countless times, I've made countless mistakes...maybe my biggest one was a week ago...but anyway...you deserve to do something that you love. You don't have to _be_ anything for me. You just have to be you." She said, placing her hand on his cheek. Sean smiled brightly and Sue's heart melted she she looked into his twinkling eyes. Sean leaned forward and hesitantly pressed his lips softly against hers. After just a week of being apart, Sue felt sparks when their lips met. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Sean put his arms around her back and pulled her closer against him, forgetting that they were still sitting on the grass of a very public space. A Frisbee softly landed on the grass beside them and they pulled apart when they heard another college student running across the grass to retrieve it. The student mumbled something along the lines of 'get a room' under his breath and quickly ran off with his Frisbee. Sean laughed at the comment and Sue blushed. "Maybe we _should._ " Sean suggested with a raise of his eyebrows. Sue laughed as she stood up and reached a hand out to Sean to help him up.

"Let's go." Sue said as she pointed in the direction of her apartment. Sean had a gleaming smile as he held onto her hand. As they walked in the direction of her apartment, they passed the bench where they had been sitting earlier and Sean reached down to retrieve his backpack. He slung it over his shoulder and placed his free arm around Sue's shoulder as they walked side by side through the quad.

"So, what _do_ you want to do?" Sue asked as they walked. Sean wasn't sure what she was implying immediately, but he remembered their conversation and removed his mind from the gutter.

"I think I'd like to be a teacher." Sean said.

"Hmm.." Sue thought for a moment. "I think you would make a great teacher." Sue smiled. Sean pulled her closer and kissed her on the cheek.

"I love you so much." He said.

"I love you, too." She replied.

Finally, everything was back to the way it was supposed to be.


End file.
